e120. Quarantine Comfort TV

Let me tell you a story, children. Way back in the before time, in the long long ago, before the plague came, we used to have this stuff we called content… media… shows. Back then, if we wanted entertainment, we would turn on our magic picture boxes and marvel at the wonders that displayed before…

Call For Comments: Quarantine Comfort TV

From Mav: This started out being a different kind of episode. A while back Katya pitched the idea to talk about “Feel Good TV.” She can give more details but the short side of it is that I think she wanted to talk about the kinds of shows you watch to make you feel good…

e111. STILL Not Over It!

Some things are hard to get over. Your first love. The death of a beloved pet. That time your team lost the Super Bowl. And… apparently that season finale of Game of Thrones last year. We probably can’t help you with those first three, but the last one is kind of our thing here. Why…

e108. Bad Things We Love

Way back on episode 86, our four hosts got together and talked about “Good Things We Hate” Hannah, Katya, Wayne and Mav discussed the idea of taste and high brow and low brow entertainment and talked about a selection of books, movies, TV shows, music and other media that is commonly accepted as great but…

e75. Judging a Show by its Pilot?

It’s fall and if you’re a television fan that means you know that we are on the cusp of dozens — or these days maybe even hundreds — of new shows hitting the TV airwaves. And every new TV show starts with a pilot… an episode that introduces you to the show and tries to…

Call for Comments: Can you judge a show by its pilot?

From Mav: Back when the Game of Thrones aired their finale, we devoted an episode to not just talking about that finale, but the idea of finales in general. We talked about what makes a finale succeed or fail and what some of the best examples were. How important (or not important) is it to…

e70. Does Pop Culture Matter?

Live from Wizard World Pittsburgh! Shows like ours and… well, a lot of the rest of the internet are hopelessly devoted to popular culture: Comic books, movies, music, video games, sports, TV. All of the stuff that sophisticated people will tell you is rotting your brain and wasting your life. We like to think we’re…

Call For Comments: Does Pop Culture Matter? (LIVE show at Wizard World Pittsburgh)

From Mav: Well, this is kind of exciting. We’ve been invited to do a live panel at Wizard World Pittsburgh this week. We’ll be joining together with our good friend Danny Anderson of the Sectarian Review to talk about why pop culture matters on Sunday, July 28th at 12:30 in room 315 at the Wizard…

e48. Political TV and Nostalgia

In the current age of Trump, we’ve noticed a peculiar trend. People yearning for the days of an earlier president… a great orator… a wise statesmen with decorum… a calming presence on television. Not Barack Obama (well, maybe he too). We’re talking about Jed Bartlet, fictional president on television’s The West Wing. Of course, he…

Call for Comments: Watching/Streaming Cheesey Christmas Movies

From Hannah: Over the past few years Christmas has somehow become synonymous with cheesy Christmas movies from channels like Hallmark, Lifetime, and ABC Family (before it became Freeform). I’m not imagining things — Hallmark, for example, has increased its production of holiday movies to 37 and will add Hanukkah movies to its schedule next year.…